z :: big bracket business

I actually did this about three weeks ago, but I didn't get a chance to update until now. After the debacle with the Holley mounting bracket (that I could not machine with ANY tool in my garage, something that's never happened before), I rummaged through my scrap pile to find a piece of aluminum angle that, shockingly, had two holes drilled it that fit the mounting holes on my car perfectly. Check it out:

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I'm not sure what this bracket was originally used for, but it came out of the scrap pile ready to go on one side. I just had to machine it to fit the fuel pressure regulator.

The new bracket is a little bit bigger, but will be much easier to machine. Drilling the small holes on each side of the giant hole was easy, but I had to figure out how to do the big one. It's probably about 1" in diameter.

At first I tried to make several small cuts with a dremel then grind out the difference, but the 1/8" aluminum didn't grind well - it was too soft and too thick.

After some head scratching, I decided to work on my accuracy with a .22 rifle, and by .22 rifle I mean drill press.

I again tried to use the dremel to clean up the difference, but it turned out that a curved file worked much much better.


I then cleaned the bracket up with my new favorite tool, a gasket cleaning disk. Nice brushed look.


Here's a decent shot of the product. Stupidly, I didn't take a picture of it all mounted up, but you get the idea.

Stay tuned for last weekend's progress: I got the upper radiator hose sorted and the new custom transmission bracket (possibly a prototype) finished.